The Latest Wearable Tech Trends for Caregivers

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Being a caregiver for a family member or loved one can be a tough job. Fortunately, there are a host of new technologies that can help make your life a bit easier and their lives a bit safer. The best part? Utilizing this new tech could be as simple as putting on your favorite shirt.

Wearable technology is nothing new, but the last few years have seen an explosion in innovation. And the market is taking off in a big way. Over the next few years, it’s estimated that the global market for wearable technology will be around $95 billion dollars. That’s “billion” with a B. Here are a few of our favorite wearable technologies that could be making their way onto your loved one’s wrist or into your wardrobe in the future.

Smart watches

Many smart watches nowadays feature a GPS function, which can be helpful if you’re caring for a person with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. If they lose their way while wearing their smart watch, locating them could be as easy as tapping an app. And while smart watches aren’t intended to be medical devices, some, like the Apple Watch Series 6, claim to be capable of taking electrocardiograms (ECGs) and monitoring blood oxygen levels (with a few caveats). When paired with a tracking app on a phone, users can get rough information on the wellness of the person wearing the smart watch or notifications of red-flag events like irregular sinus rhythm.

How this tech might help you:

Beyond monitoring the person in your care (with their consent, of course), you can use a smart watch yourself to set medicine reminders, get exercise and monitor your stress level.

Wearable monitors

BioIntelliSense offers a little sticker that could make a big impact. The company’s BioButton devices can be attached to a patient’s clothes to help provide physicians with a way to monitor patient health remotely — even patients living at home. According to the company, these devices are able to continuously measure temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate at rest with clinical accuracy, and they track this data over time to uncover trends that may indicate a health problem. Additionally, the company claims that its BioSticker product can be affixed to a patient’s chest and monitor body position, activity levels, and sleep status for up to 30 days before needing to be replaced. The BioSticker also features high-resolution gait analysis and fall detection.

How this tech might help you:

In addition to being less obvious than a smart watch (and not as easily lost), these devices provide medical-grade information tracking, which doctors may use to help make a more accurate diagnosis following a medical event.

Haptic feedback systems

If you’re caring for a music aficionado who has grown hard of hearing or deaf, Not Impossible Labs could have the tech they’ve been waiting for. The company has developed a haptic feedback system that help deaf people to experience music. Not Impossible’s software and hardware translates different channels of audio into signals that are sent to lights and vibrating motors embedded in a vest, wrist straps and ankle straps. As music is played, these signals are transformed into vibrations, allowing users to literally feel the music — a guitar could go to the left and right wrist, a bass channel could go to the lower back, vocals are felt in the abdomen area, and so on.

How this tech might help you:

Not everything you do as a caregiver needs to be related to physical health! Quality of life matters too. Helping the person for whom you’re caring enjoy something they love could go a long way toward their overall wellness and happiness — and wouldn’t that improve your happiness too?

Smart clothes

Your clothes are getting smarter, thanks to innovators like Loomia. The company creates cloth with circuitry woven into the thread to create fabrics that may be used to create jackets with built-in power switches, shoes that warm up automatically and shirts with integrated sensors. The possibilities are limited only by a creator’s imagination. What does this look like in real life? How about yoga pants that correct your form and alignment using vibrations? Now, we’re not saying that owning pants that judge your posture is for everyone, but caregivers may find positive benefits from practicing certain types of yoga, according to the Mayo Clinic. And, with their doctor’s sign-off, the person in your care could help improve their balance and flexibility by practicing gentle yoga techniques.

How this tech might help you:

Beyond yoga lessons and toasty, warm socks on demand, the sky's the limit with smart-cloth tech. Who knows what benefits you’ll discover for yourself and the person in your care as this technology evolves?

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